Musical Theater
- Barnum London production opened at the London Palladium on June 11 and ran for 655 performances
- Bring Back Birdie Broadway production
- Cats (Andrew Lloyd Webber) – London production opened at the New London Theatre on May 11 and ran for 8949 performances
- Dreamgirls Broadway production opened on December 20 at the Imperial Theatre and ran for 1522 performances
- March of the Falsettoes off-Broadway production
- Merrily We Roll Along – Broadway production opened at the Alvin Theatre on November 16 and ran for 16 performances
- The Pirates of Penzance Broadway revival
- Song and Dance London production
- Woman of the Year Broadway production opened at the Palace Theatre on March 29 and ran for 770 performances
Read more about this topic: 1981 In Music
Famous quotes containing the words musical and/or theater:
“I was with Hercules and Cadmus once,
When in a wood of Crete they bayed the bear
With hounds of Sparta: never did I hear
Such gallant chiding; for besides the groves,
The skies, the fountains, every region near
Seemed all one mutual cry. I never heard
So musical a discord, such sweet thunder.”
—William Shakespeare (1564–1616)
“The theater is a baffling business, and a shockingly wasteful one when you consider that people who have proven their worth, who have appeared in or been responsible for successful plays, who have given outstanding performances, can still, in the full tide of their energy, be forced, through lack of opportunity, to sit idle season after season, their enthusiasm, their morale, their very talent dwindling to slow gray death. Of finances we will not even speak; it is too sad a tale.”
—Ilka Chase (1905–1978)